Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Media Bullshit Awards

Last night I watched the ceremony to award the Bobards d'Or 2013. Not on tele, no way! It was being streamed live on the internet. Hurrah for the internet!

What's a bobard? Depending on how polite you want to be it can be a 'tall story', 'lie', 'bullshit' etc. So basically you when you say a bobard you are not telling the truth. The Bobards d'Or are awarded to French journalists. Unbelievable, no? French journalists who don't tell the truth?

Par for the course, actually, they're at it all the time. If they aren't actually lying, they are dissembling the truth, drowning it in irrelevant details, and colouring it with political correctness in order to align the public's attitudes and beliefs.

This is not unique to France, of course. Most of the western world is suffering from an excess of stultifying attempts to readjust traditional beliefs and behaviour.

For your delectation and delight, let me tell you about the winners of the 2013 Bobards d'Or and you'll understand exactly what I'm going on about.

Bobard d’Argent : Serge Le Luyer (Ouest France, Le Monde) for a civil status bobard, or how to transform the name of a collège-age murderer from Souleyman to Vladimir. With this he also managed to kill two birds with one stone because on the one hand he managed to hide the fact that the murderer was a Muslim, and on the other he was able to allude to, and demonise that baddie Putin.

Bobard de Bronze : Jean-Jacques Bourdin (radio journalist for RMC) for a bobard 'immigrophilie'. He tried to make his listeners believe that immigration in 2012 was less than that of 1931. How did he do that? By good old lying. He came up with a make-believe number of 5.8% of immigrants whereas the official INSEE figure is reported as 8.4%. He made out that there were twice as many Italians in 1931 as there were Algerians in 2012 whereas in fact the number was similar, and in any case, many Italians came to France temporarily and went back later to Italy.

But the fun didn't end there.

A special prix du jury, the Mouton d'Or was awarded to the media as a whole for its reporting of the terrorist acts committed by Mohamed Merah in Toulouse. The alleged killer was assumed by the media to be a white, blond, blue-eyed neo-nazi based on no evidence whatsoever. They were gutted when they discovered the actual killer was a Muslim of Algerian origin naturalised French, and so changed tack to describe him as a 'Frenchman from Toulouse, a nice boy with the face of an angel'. This is the man who gunned down in cold blood a total of seven people including three Jewish children and injured six others.

Finally, une muselière d’or (a golden muzzle) was awarded to Patrick Cohen from radio station France Inter. He replied 'non' to the question 'we have the right to think what we like?' and continued « on a le droit de penser ce qu’on veut dans les limites de la loi. » (one has the right to think what one likes within the limits of the law). Scary Orwellian stuff! A well-deserved award, that one!

The French media is a world of concealment of certain facts, endless repetition of other facts, distortion, sanctification of 'good' demonisation of 'bad', 1984 Doublespeak and, of course, the good old bobard. Among the 'bad' is anyone who doesn't have the same opinions as the media which alone holds the keys to the nation's morality. Critical thinking of all sides of an issue has become suspended and has been replaced by political correctness.

Thinking is confined within four pillars of containment: globalisation, anti-racism, rupture of traditions, and the criminalisation of French and European memory.

The news on French television is practically a joke these days. The funniest thing is that more and more people are turning away from watching it, and going onto the internet in search of independent news sources. The stranglehold of press barons is wavering because, poor things, they've lost the monopoly on news outlets, and pompous lecturing journalists are no longer untouchable.

And to finish, to illustrate the level of journalism on French television here is a video of actress Veronique Genest being attacked for her opinions by pompous lecturing 'journalist' Aymeric Caron on a chat show where she was not told she would be subjected to a political discussion, and thus came unprepared. She suffered a violent verbal attack. It's followed by a video with Islam specialist and International Civil Liberties Alliance president Alain Wagner who supports with sources the points Veronique Genest made and thus totally ridicules and humiliates that twat Caron. I doubt he'll have learned the lessons though...

Ah, journalism. I was taught that it was supposed to relate the facts, and not try to influence public opinion. But apparently that's just the theory. Your analysis of French journalism is very accurate; the Mérad episode shocked me too.

Oh my gosh - the French do everything with such aplomb and style - Bobard for bullshit - you couldn't make that up - but yes these journalists do....Actually even the politicians here that I like the former San fran Mayor who is fantastic and incredibly handsome was plugging his book the other day and kept repeating dreadful phrases like "top down" Give us a bit of credit wouldya?

I have to agree with you. When I listen to the news in France, I find it hard to believe how condescending the so-called journalists are. The thing is, I didn't see it that way when I was living there. It is all about protecting the established order and influencing public opinion.I don't know if it is deliberate or sheer incompetence.

It's totally deliberate, and as the situation in the country is getting worse and worse, they are getting more and more condescending and verbally aggressive.

You may not have noticed it when you lived here because it may not have been as bad. It's too obvious to miss now. Very few people now in sondages say they have confidence in journalists, so these types are just pissing in the wind. :)